Ins and Outs

Ins and Outs: Industry hires and moves

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Splash Damage continues its regular appearance on this page, with four new hires at the company.

First, DIEGO LLORENS RICO (1) joins the studio as an assistant gameplay programmer, Rico previously spent ve months working as a game developer for Simedis, working on LapEntryCoach, a laparoscopy simulator.

Still at Splash Damage,

RICHARD HAYDEN

(2) signs on as a lead product manager. Hayden has worked as a product consultant for the past four years, and has previously worked at Oneserve, as head of product.

ANTHONY KYNE (3)

also joins, as a production director. Kyne joins from Mediatonic, where he has spent the past two years working as lead producer.

The last hire at Splash Damage is ETHAN PAGE (4) joins the company as an associate gameplay programmer. Page has worked for ve months as a teaching assistant over at Kingston University. Game developer Sharkmob is starting the new year by adding several new names to the London studio’s leadership team.

First, SIMON LASHLEY (5) joins as a principal technical designer. Lashley joins the team from Wargaming, and has previously worked at companies such as Guerrilla and Rockstar, as well as at Sumo.

Next up, ASHLEIGH WEBB (6) joins Sharkmob as a HR director. Prior to joining the team at Sharkmob, Webb worked at PlayStation London Studio.

Still at Sharkmob, SERGIO FRANCO (7) joins as technical director. Franco joins from Amazon Game Studios and has previously worked at Rare and Microsoft Studios.

KELVIN JANSON (8) also joins, as an art manager. Janson joins Sharkmob from Playground Games, where he worked for over nine years. Janson has also worked for both Sony and Codemasters. LEE ADAMSON (9) also joins Sharkmob, joining the team as a lead vehicle artist. Adamson previously worked at Rocksteady, where he spent over 13 years working on projects such as Batman: Arkham City and Arkham Knight

Sharkmob’s next hire is CHRIS ROYALL (10), who joins the team as a studio IT lead. Royall previously worked at King, where he spent six years working as an IT support team leader, and has also worked at Acxiom Corporation.

Finally at Sharkmob,

STEFAN VALASEK

(11) joins as a concept artist. Valasek joins from Staffordshire University, with a bachelor’s degree in Concept Art.

Hypercasual mobile publisher Kwalee has hired

MAX EVERINGHAM (12)

as head of PC & console publishing. The former Team17 head of publishing is already working to build his new team and identify exciting new games to publish, following the recent launch of Kwalee’s rst externally-developed PC title, Eternal Hope. Future Publishing has undergone a series of promotions and new hires at the company.

First, OSCAR TAYLORKENT (13) has been promoted to deputy editor on Offi cial PlayStation Magazine. Taylor-Kent was previously games editor at the magazine.

There’s some change over at EDGE magazine, too.

CHRIS SCHILLING (14)

has been promoted to deputy editor – with Tony Mott rejoining the team as acting editor.

Also at EDGE, ALEX SPENCER (15) joins as features editor. Spencer has been working as a freelance journalist since 2011.

Keywords Studios has appointed SONIA

LASHAND SEDLER

(16) as the Group’s Chief Operating Of cer (COO). Sedler has 20 years of experience, most recently as global head of managed services and banking strategy at Diebold Nixdorf, a global retail and banking technology and services organisation. Liquid Violet, part of Keywords Studios has announced that KATIE YOUNG (17) has joined its audio production, voice casting and recording facilities located in London’s West End as head of studio. Young has nearly 18 years of experience in the industry—including 12 years working in various roles at The Walt Disney Company

Publisher No More Robots has made a series of new hires at the company. First, SOPHIE SMART (18) joins the team as a senior producer. Smart will be helping to organize No More Robots in preparation for the 4+ games that the publisher is planning to announce and launch this year.

Additionally, STACEY SATCHELL (19) joins the team as QA. Satchell is a game design graduate from the University of Central Lancashire.

Finally, JOE BOGNAR (20) has joined ASUS & ROG in the systems division, working as a public relations specialist

Got an appointment you’d like to share with the industry? Email Chris Wallace at chris.wallace@biz-media.co.uk

Rising Star

Every month, we pick the brain of an up-and-coming talent

Grace Shin, policy officer at Ukie, talks about her start in the industry, dealing with Brexit and the joys of finding out what an MP’s favourite game is

How did you break into games?

Growing up, I adored games and couldn’t play them enough - whether it was games such as The Sims or Dragon Age.

After graduating from the University of York with a history degree, I decided that I wanted to work in the policy/public affairs space, and so I looked on relevant job boards.

When the position of Policy and Events Intern at Ukie turned up, it seemed like a perfect fit. After getting the job and making some life changing cups of tea for the team, I was promoted to full time.

What has been your proudest achievement so far?

This is going to sound incredibly dry, but the first consultation response I led on and wrote, which was our response to the Migration Advisory Committee on the Shortage Occupation List to include more games related roles. It was just a really good experience to have so early in my career.

On top of this, the MAC took up recommendations we made, and although of course it wasn’t our response alone that did it, knowing that my analysis contributed was really satisfying. It gave me the confidence to trust my judgement in future work.

What has been your biggest challenge?

Brexit! Working out the complexities of varying scenarios of Brexit and their impacts on the industry has been a headache at times, especially when the situation changed so frequently the past few years (see page 10 for a handy summary of Shin’s work on that topic).

In fact, the process of analysing and explaining any piece of complex policy or regulation can be a challenge.

The nature of the industry is that it is so diverse in terms of size and business models. You need to be aware that any policy aimed at games may affect a two-person team as much as an international corporation, which means it can be really tough when taking all that into account.

I am a total geek though, so I find it immensely satisfying getting my head around the many policy challenges out there - especially when you’re then able to easily articulate them to members.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

A lot, actually. It is an exciting industry to work in as it is one which is naturally future focused. So shaping policy to help the games industry is motivating in that respect as you’re working on some forward-facing issues which have wider societal significance, from Online Harms to digital connectivity.

The people who work in games makes it great as well. In my experience, everyone I have met has been so friendly and passionate about what they do. It’s an industry full of wonderful personalities and everyone is young at heart.

Finally, I love finding out what an MP’s favourite game is. Strangely, it is nearly always Civilisation or a Paradox game. Hmm…

What’s your biggest ambition in games?

Not a personal ambition but a broader one for the industry – I hope that one day its cultural importance is truly recognised and respected. The UK especially has such an amazing games heritage and there is often a degree of surprise when explaining this to parliamentarians. We have amazing creative industries, and games are a key part. We should acknowledge that.

What advice would you give to an aspiring policy officer?

Find out what you would like to do as a job in any industry and work on gaining experience and skills in that. Secondly, I really recommend going to industry events (well, virtually) and meeting people. You never know what kind of opportunity could come up.

If there’s a rising star at your company, contact Chris Wallace at chris.wallace@biz-media.co.uk

Cherry picked advice to help you reach the next level in your career

Pierre-Antoine Cohade, producer at Sparx*, a Virtuos Studio, talks about wearing multiple hats, the need to be versatile and the opportunity for career progression

What is your job role and how would you describe your typical day at work?

I am a producer, but most days I wear two hats in my role. The first is acting as a line producer on our multi-department triple-A and double-A game projects, working across teams to deliver complex projects for our clients. The second is acting as producer for our Brief & Concepts Group.

Most days start with stand-up meetings for the multi-department projects currently underway. This is followed by a check-in with each of the artists in our team individually to make sure everything is on track and identify any obstacles. The rest of the day then consists of meetings on a variety of topics, from team management, to visually checking current work, to reviewing KPIs, before wrapping up in the afternoon with calls to update our clients.

What qualifications and/or experience does someone need to get this job?

I wouldn’t say that there are any specific qualifications needed for this role, however there are certain attributes that are important to have and many of these do come with experience in similar roles, either inside or outside the games industry.

Firstly, you need to have good managerial skills, so you should have some experience managing a team. In my role you need to manage directors, team leaders, artists, other producers, and more.

Secondly, you need to have experience as a project manager, with ideally some knowledge when it comes to managing finances, legal contracts, and measuring against KPIs.

Thirdly, you need to be adaptable. The ability to adapt your processes to those changes is crucial as every client will not have the same requirements. If you’re a good problem solver who can think on their feet, you could make a good producer.

Finally, you need to have an interest in the games industry, and always be on top of new trends and the latest new technology.

If you were interviewing someone for your team, what would you look for?

I would certainly be looking for versatility when it comes to the artists on my team. We work with 18 of the 20 biggest games companies in the world, so our projects can be so different that an artist who performed well on one can find themselves struggling on another.

It’s important that my team can work with different styles (from oil painting style, to cartoony, to photorealistic) and are able to do different types of work (from environment or character concept, to set-dressing, to 3D modelling). Having a speciality is great, and all my artists have something they are particularly awesome at, but we always encourage them to diversify their skills.

What opportunities are there for career progression in your industry?

The great thing about the games industry is the variety of paths people can take as they build their careers. For me as a producer, there is a clear progression path to more senior production roles, such as leading up to production director.

For my team of artists initial progression goes from junior artist to senior artist roles. At a big global studio like ours, those that truly excel at team management might well progress to team leader, and in some cases to art director.

Want to talk about your career and inspire people to follow the same path? Contact Chris Wallace at chris.wallace@biz-media.co.uk

Debugging D&I

Amiqus’ Liz Prince introduces our new regular feature, promoting the importance of diversity and inclusion in the industry

We know there have always been many competing a priority, here are a few well documented and researched priorities for games businesses, made only more reminders as to why it should take centre stage in 2021. complex and challenging by the pandemic, which has A diverse workforce provides a variety of perspectives, impacted our lives in so many different ways. increased creativity, higher levels of innovation and delivers

Diversity and/or inclusion have sometimes struggled to make it faster problem solving and better decision making. Diverse to the top of the agenda for many studios, and when they have companies report greater profits, higher employee engagement made it there, for some it hasn’t necessarily moved past the “A diverse workforce provides and retention. Outwardly your reputation is enhanced, and in discussion or initial investigation stage. We know that this isn’t a variety of perspectives, turn you will attract more top talent. Current data suggests generally from a lack of will, but through a lack of time, resource, increased creativity, higher that over two thirds of job seekers consider a diverse focus or knowledge, or all of these things. Our industry isn’t levels of innovation and workforce to be important when comparing companies and job alone in this – a recent report in the tech sector revealed that 41 delivers faster problem solving offers. Looking ahead however, this is going to become even per cent of companies asked had cited being “too busy” as and better decision making” more of a focus. When PwC looked into the statistics the number one reason they surrounding the millennial avoid hiring for diversity. The COVID-19 pandemic has only workforce, they discovered that diversity is something millennials exacerbated this for many. hold in high regard. 85 per cent of females agreed that an

So where do we go from here? I remain passionate that the employer’s policy on diversity and equality was important when games industry must and can accelerate its focus on diversity deciding whether to work for an employer. As the workplace and inclusion programmes, despite the ongoing challenges becomes more populated with the millennial and gen Z we’re all facing. And this series of articles is here to offer generations, studios risk missing out on top talent if they aren’t practical advice from those who have made significant changes diverse and inclusive. for the better within their organisations. They will be sharing their There are so many tangible and measurable benefits to D&I, best practice tips, experience and advice to help more studios but there is also a significant moral responsibility to consider, to make good on the diversity pledges they may have taken early do the right thing and demonstrate commitment to social justice last year. as part of your corporate social responsibility.

Hopefully, many of you will be aware of our ‘Putting The G We hope you’re ready to make D&I central to your 2021 Into Gaming’ campaign, which is aimed at supporting women priorities and that this series of articles will help. in games, as well as encouraging more females to consider a career in games.

We launched ‘Empower-Up’ as a sister initiative last year. The programme has been devised to provide a guided journey to help studios and leadership teams make a change for better. If D&I has become a Covid casualty in your business and you At Amiqus, we have many want to make it a priority but don’t know where to start, we resources available to help, can help. Get in touch any time. If you’re not ready or perhaps so please do get in touch via feel that you are still too busy to make diversity and inclusion liz.prince@amiqus.com.